Empty vines in our vineyard. We are looking back at harvest in early September and another season that went way too quickly.

This year was an exceptional year. Not only because temperatures were the warmest ever in recorded history. We also had a temperature peak in June that severely affected grape yield in the Temecula valley. Our Vinduino station recorded two days with temperatures reaching as high as 117 F.Plants get tissue damage when exposed to temperatures over 115 F, and our vines responded by switching to survival mode by selectively shutting down clusters. The picture below shows the dramatical effect.

As a result, average yield loss in the Temecula wine region was around 20-30%. This may be a sign of things to come with global warming. From discussions with other growers, it appears that lowest losses were in vineyards with full irrigation (100% ET0) and good canopy cover. Vineyards that were exposed to early deficit irrigation (before veraison) and canopy thinning had more than average yield loss.

There is also good news, with the Vinduino system we were able to maintain 25% irrigation water reduction compared to 2014, and the quality of the harvested grapes was excellent.

Now we are doing the post-harvest fertilization, giving back to the soil what we took from it. Preparing the vines for their period of dormancy and next year's growing season.